Coal mine legal challenge begins Tuesday

The High Court in London will hear two legal challenges (16-18 July) to the government’s decision to grant planning permission for a controversial new coal mine in West Cumbria in December 2022. 
 
The challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) will take place over three days.  

The cases were boosted on Thursday 11 July when the government agreed that planning permission was unlawfully granted  [1] following a landmark legal ruling in the Supreme Court last month [2].

The court hearing will still proceed because the mine’s developer, West Cumbria Mining, is still defending the legal challenges.

A Friends of the Earth briefing – written before the government withdrew its support for the mine - is here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/whitehaven-coal-mine-destructive-and-unnecessary

ENDS

Notes

1.    Government pulls defence of Cumbria mine legal challenges: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/government-pulls-defence-cumbria-mine-legal-challenges

2.    On Thursday 20 June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that Surrey County Council acted unlawfully by giving planning permission for oil production at Horse Hill in the Surrey countryside without considering the climate impacts of when the oil is inevitably burned. The landmark judgment followed a legal challenge brought by former Surrey resident Sarah Finch, on behalf of the Weald Action Group, and supported from the start by Friends of the Earth as a legal intervener: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/horse-hill-historic-win-supreme-court-upholds-landmark-climate-case

3.    Friends of the Earth is represented in the legal challenge by barristers Paul Brown KC, Toby Fisher and Alex Shattock, and by Rowan Smith and Julia Eriksen at the law firm Leigh Day. The in-house lawyers at Friends of the Earth are Niall Toru and Katie de Kauwe.